Two people escaped a rollover crash Sunday evening with minor injuries although the 4-year-old passenger wasn’t in a child safety seat.
Shortly after 6 p.m., personnel from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, California Highway Patrol and American Medical Response were dispatched to an incident on northbound Highway 101, just north of Alisos Canyon in Los Alamos, fire Capt. Scott Safechuck said.
The vehicle veered off the highway and rolled in an adjacent culvert and along a barbed wire fence, Safechuck said.
The adult female driver and 4-year-old child, restrained by shoulder/lap belts only, were transported with minor injuries by ground ambulance to Marian Regional Medical Center, Safechuck said.
The cause of the rollover crash will be investigated by CHP officers from the Santa Maria area.
Highway 101 traffic lanes remained open while emergency crews were at the scene.
The crash occurred one day after the end of Child Passenger Safety Week from Sept. 22-27.
The annual campaign encourages all parents and caregivers to make sure their children are riding safely by using the correct car seats, booster seats and properly fitted seat belts, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office reminded recently.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly half of car seats (46%) are misused.
Properly installed car seats have been shown to reduce fatal injury crashes by 71% for infants under a year old and by 54% for toddlers ages 1 through 4.
California law requires all children under 2 years old to ride in a rear-facing car seat, unless the child is 40 or more pounds or is 40 or more inches tall, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Once children reach these milestones, if they are under the age of 8 years old they still must be secured in a car seat or booster seat in the vehicle’s back seat.
Children 8 and older, or who are at least 4 feet 9 inches tall, may be secured by a booster seat, but at a minimum must be secured by a safety belt.
Parents and caregivers are encouraged to keep children in the proper rear or forward-facing seat as long as possible and determine if their child’s size would allow them to safely use a seat belt without a booster seat.
For more information on child safety seats, click here.